Common Receptacle elongated, scaly. Blossom of four petals. Chives inserted into the limb of the blossom. Capsule two valves, two seeds, and a moveable partition between them. Seeds winged.
See Banksia serrata, Pl. LXXXII. Vol. II.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Banksia foliis cuneatis præmorsis, serratis, subtus albo-punctatis, supra glabris; floribus externè purpureis.
Banksia with wedge-shaped leaves, appearing bitten at the ends, sawed, dotted with white on the under part, smooth on the upper; flowers purple on the outside.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A Flower not yet expanded, with the germ at the base.
2. The same open, the extremities of one of the petals magnified, to shew the situation of the Chive in its place.
3. The Pointal complete, the summit magnified.
The first plants which were seen of this plant in England, were raised from seeds, at the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 1788. It is a handsome growing shrub, and the plant from which our figure was made had grown to the height of seven feet; it having been planted in the conservatory of the Clapham collection, where it flowered, for the first time, this year, in July, continuing in high beauty near two months. It is a plant of most difficult increase, rarely that it is to be propagated by cuttings; and the wood rots, if laid into the earth. A light soil, of sandy peat, and a small portion of sandy loam, appears most congenial to its growth. There are hopes, from the perfect state of the cones, that ripe seeds may be procured in this country.[Pg 462]